Cheap Eats: 11 Toronto restaurants (and bars and food shops) where you can eat well for less
Cheap Eats: 11 Toronto restaurants (and bars and food shops) where you can eat well for less
2013 is shaping up to be the Year of Cheap Eats in Toronto. Lobster prices are at record lows. Delicious Asian street food is plentiful. And every fancy restaurant is tripping over itself to offer a sandwich deal. (Some bars are even serving inventive cocktails for $10 or less, a steal in the age of the $18 Manhattan). Below, 11 of the best deals in town right now.
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- Two brothers, one an Oliver and Bonacini–trained chef, serve serious brisket sandwiches out of an old gas station. The smoky meat is slathered in a sweet barbecue sauce and piled onto a puffy bun. With a side of beans, the whole mess rings in at $10.75. <strong>Leslieville Pumps,</strong> <em>929 Queen St. E., 416-465-1313. </em>
- (Image: Emma McIntyre)
- Brisket and beans
- Brisket and beans
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- Every weekday at Claudio Aprile’s Liberty Village restaurant there’s a different $9 sandwich special. The lobster club is the best bargain: brioche, bacon, lettuce, tomato and a mound of lemony lobster shreds. It puts Bymark’s famous lobster grilled cheese, at three times the price, to one-per-cent shame. <strong>Origin Liberty,</strong> <em>171 East Liberty St., 416-649-4567.</em>
- (Image: Emma McIntyre)
- Lobster lunch
- Lobster lunch
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- Ssäm, the traditional Korean DIY sharing meal, may be the trendiest dish in Toronto right now. David Chang’s famous iteration costs $40 per person at Daishō, his new Toronto spot. Chef Jonathan Poon serves it for half that ($21 per portion). <strong>Chantecler,</strong> <em>1320 Queen St. W., 416-628-3586.</em>
- (Image: Emma McIntyre)
- Korean feast
- Korean feast
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- For some of the cheapest craft brews in the Financial District, thirsty Bay Streeters hit the <strong>Beer Academy.</strong> The mandate of the place is educational, so the music is low and the hoppy pints are served by masters of the brewniverse who wax philosophical on pour, aroma and head. A flight of three four-ouncers costs a measly $5.75. <em>75 Victoria St., 416-366-1786. </em>
- (Image: Emma McIntyre)
- Beer flights
- Beer flights
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- <strong>The Yukon</strong> knows its crowd: mostly Parkdale 30-somethings, post-hipsters who need a stiff manhattan to ease their new mortgaged-for-life anxiety. It offers terrific drink and snack deals, the best of which are on Mondays, when P.E.I. oysters are a buck each. <em>1592 Queen St. W., 647-348-8400. </em>
- (Image: Emma McIntyre)
- After-work drinks
- After-work drinks
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- Forty dollars may sound steep, but hear us out. Every Sunday, <strong>Edulis,</strong> one of the city’s best new restaurants, hosts multi-course lunches that emulate lazy weekend family meals in Europe. Expect old-school French and Spanish cooking, like octopus ceviche and braised rabbit, made with Ontario ingredients. And bottles of wine are all half-price. <em>169 Niagara St., 416-703-4222</em>
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- Blowout brunch
- Blowout brunch
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- At <strong>Faley,</strong> a Chinese owner singing along to Hindi music is the first sign of the Hakka’s bizarre and fascinating cultural mash-up. The other is the food: Manchurian paneer is soft, mild Indian cheese in a strong, herbaceous soy sauce. $8. <em>42 Rexdale Blvd., 416-746-4948.</em>
- (Image: Gan-Ben beef, courtesy of Faley)
- Hot Hakka eats
- Hot Hakka eats
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- Margherita pizza—that magical combination of chewy crust, San Marzano sauce, fi or di latte and basil—gets pricier all the time. At Terroni or Queen Margherita, it would run you $14. But at <strong>Via Mercanti</strong> in Kensington Market, it’s just $10. <em>188 Augusta Ave., 647-343-6647.</em>
- (Image: Caroline Aksich)
- Thin-crust pizza
- Thin-crust pizza
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- Mains at <strong>Lamesa</strong> are around $25 each, which makes the five-course prix fixe for $40 a ridiculous deal—and a great way to sample Filipino cuisine. We love the halo halo sisig: a chili-peppered pile of ground pork, chicken and beef topped with a gooey fried egg and pico de gallo. <em>669 Queen St. W., 647-346-2377.</em>
- (Image: Karolyne Ellacott)
- Filipino prix fixe
- Filipino prix fixe
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- Vito Rizzutto, the long-time chef at Five Doors North, has opened an ethical butcher shop where he sells staples from his menu. His famous braised pork ribs come vacuum packed and ready to throw in the oven for almost half the price you’d pay at the restaurant (about $12 for a half-rack). <strong>The Butcher’s Son,</strong> <em>2055 Yonge St., 416-901-9414.</em>
- (Image: Courtesy of <a href="https://twitter.com/ButchersSonTO">The Butcher’s Son</a>)
- Gourmet prepped food
- Gourmet prepped food
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- Japanese set menus in Toronto are either too cheap (the fake-crab and-mayo variety) or too pricey (the $300 kaiseki at Hashimoto). Call <strong>ND Sushi</strong> in advance and chef Andy Chon will assemble a glittering collection of eight Japanese dishes for only $50. <em>3 Baldwin St., 416-551-6362.</em>
- (Image: Emma McIntyre)
- Omakase
- Omakase
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- <a href="http://www.torontolife.com/daily/daily-dish/bottoms/2012/12/13/10-cheap-toronto-cocktails/">10 deliciously inventive Toronto cocktails for $10 or less »</a>
- The Sipper Club
- The Sipper Club
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 where you can eat well for less&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/TL-jan13-cheap-eats-intro-624x399.jpg&description=){kind=link}
This list is ridiculous. No wonder you haven’t attracted any comments in the one year plus since it was compiled. No one read past the first two citings: Leslieville Pump (although it surpasses the $10 threshold of cheap eaters) and Origin Liberty, which is the only worthwhile entry in the whole list – ultimately reducing the veracity of this evocation to ‘Toronto’s One Good Cheap Eat’! Don’t get me wrong – the other restaurants offer some very fine fare – it’s just that $40 for Japanese doesn’t sing ‘cheap’ now, does it?!
Torontonians appreciate good food, and are willing to pay for it. But the very definition of a ‘Cheap Eats’ list of recommendations is that the reviewer has found meals that are good AND cheap – where you leave saying ‘I’m going to tell my friends about this … oh wait, maybe not, because the next time I want to eat here, I won’t be able to get a table!’
Hope the list for 2014 offers us some real choices …
This magazine is pretty arrogant.
Here’s a real recommendation, try Woodys Burger on Lake Shore W. $10 for the best pulled pork combo in the world. Trust me!
hI, anyone please share with me where can eat cheap food at downtown toronto? Please email me at misscindychew@gmail.com ^^
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